


I studied silence to learn the music

by Madam_Violet



Series: The Vault Chronicles [23]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Missy is insecure, Piano, Prompt Fic, The Vault (Doctor Who)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-27
Updated: 2018-04-27
Packaged: 2019-04-28 19:05:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14455791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Madam_Violet/pseuds/Madam_Violet
Summary: The Doctor asks Missy to teach him piano. She decides to give him a little challenge.





	I studied silence to learn the music

**Author's Note:**

  * For [D_f_m22](https://archiveofourown.org/users/D_f_m22/gifts).



> Prompt by D_f_m22  
> Sorry for the ridiculous delay.

Missy was sitting by the piano for hours now, unable to find which key she needed to push. She could hear Nardole pottering outside, guarding her from behind the door. She had scared him a few times, and he hadn't dared entering again. Good, Missy preferred being alone.  
The Doctor had materialised his TARDIS inside the Vault a few hours ago, taking her by surprise while she was having a nap. Those days, sleeping was all she had done. She didn't have enough energy for anything else. Not even talking. Missy wasn't sulking, as Nardole pretended smugly. She had just nothing to say. She felt too heavy for that. In her whole life, she couldn't recall a single time her chest had felt that heavy. She had been very cold and very scared, boiling inside from anger, light-hearted when she was the boyish one. But never heavy to the point she had nothing to say. The Doctor came to her without closing his TARDIS and sat on the bed. He sighed and ruffled her hair. It felt good and in the same time it caused a rush of emergency in her. She had to cling hard, not letting him go because when he would be gone he would be gone forever. She sensed it, the changing in his hearts, the new wind this girl blew. He smiled to her and started talking, but she didn't hear anything. Words went through her hears like an inkless pen on a white sheet of paper.  
He returned to the TARDIS that had landed in her containment field and pulled a large object from his ship. A piano. She vaguely recalled a conversation, or rather a monologue he had, about a piano. She didn't even thank him, her eyes closing again as she didn't want to see him leave. He had said her name. It was the only thing that left a print in her mind. Bill. She never had felt anything hearing this ridiculous and ordinary human name. Now it hurt her like the sharpest insult. It was the name of the woman who was taking her place in the Doctor's life. She briefly wondered what would happen when he wouldn't be there anymore. Would she be free ? Or would the little egg keep looking after her. She liked him, only a teensy tiny bit because he was nice and he gave her treats.  
The Doctor ruffled Missy's hair and said he would be back before she noticed he had left. She wondered when she would hear those words for the last time.

Now she was alone, it had been a few hours since the Doctor had left. Nardole had asked a few times if she needed anything, but she didn't answer, she just refused to go in her little safety cage and banged a few times at the door in a clearly menacing way. He left her alone.  
"Ah, here he is !" Nardole said from behind the door.  
Missy perked her head despite herself, hating how she reacted like a faithful dog waiting for her master.  
"Actually, I'm not that hungry" Nardole joked as sounds of plastic bags put on the table echoed the Doctor's steps.  
"Well, I am."  
Missy felt her heart flutter a little. She didn't dare to hope, but she still did and it was infuriating.  
"Obviously" Nardole said. "Our friend inside is a little bit restive today, maybe I should..."  
"Goodnight, Nardole."  
Missy caught a bit of a thought. It was a guilty thought about a girl called Eliza who was locked up in a room. The Doctor had felt angry after the old man who had kept her alive all those years and this anger was actually directed toward himself. Without even thinking, she started playing "Letter to Elise".  
"A piano ?" Nardole's confused voice muttered. "You put a piano in there, why ?"  
"Goodnight, Nardole" the Doctor snapped back, sending him doing whatever he was doing when he wasn't down with Missy.  
"Hey, Do you want dinner . I've got Mexican. So, what do you say, dinner ?"  
Missy slammed the keys angrily. He sound so joyful, so friendly. Like if everything was normal, just the Doctor coming back from a day of work and bringing a few groceries from the shop. Like he hadn't passed the day, their day, with another woman, an insignificant little human, instead of his dearest and oldest friends. The only consolation she found was the ridiculous lifespan of the nasty little homewrecker.  
"I've got a new story for you too. There's a haunted house, wood lice from space, and lots of young people getting eaten."  
Missy rolled her eyes and started to play a silly little nursery rhythm. The Doctor activated the force field and entered the door. Missy didn't turn around, not wanting to spoil the moment, but she could almost feel his dopey smile in her back. It made her feel warm again, and the playful tune became a light-hearted pop song she had heard on the radio. It annoyed her a bit to be so easily contented. She had become like those silly housewives stuck in a gilded cage. Lucy reacted the same when she, he at this time, came home after a few days of mischiefs and sleeping around.  
"What's going on your mind, Missy ?"  
It was only when the Doctor had asked the question that she realised the tune had changed again and was now a languid and sorrowful complaint, another silly pop song Lucy loved and she made fun of. She stopped playing and turned around. The force field was down and the Doctor was setting the table. She jumped on her feet and walk towards him.  
"I see you've already adopted my gift. It was a good idea after all" he said with a smile.  
"Thank you" she simply answered as she sat in her favourite armchair by the tea table.  
She had started to feel awkward and sad again. But the Doctor smiled anyway and moved the take away boxes to the tea table.  
"You're already playing very well."  
"I played before. A long time ago."  
"You could teach me" he said with a hopeful smile.  
"You probably already know how to play."  
"Not with this body. I'm more a silly punk rocker this time around" he add with a joking voice.  
Missy smiled too. She loved his punk rocker style. She loved everything about him to be honest, and it scared her a little. His attack eyebrows and the kindness that reflected in his greyish eyes, his dopey smile and the cold anger that had, according to legends, caused in a single sentence the liberation of Gallifrey from Rassilon and his corruption. She loved how burning cold he was, and still so good and soft with her.  
"I'm sorry", he said. "I shouldn't have left you for so long. I relate a little bit too much on Nardole when it comes to looking after you."  
Missy bit her lower lip, taken aback by his honesty.  
"It's okay" she heard her composed voice say.  
"He told me you've been acting up a lot lately."  
"I've missed you" she said as a meek excuse.  
"I've missed you too."  
She snorted and he lowered his eyes apologetically.  
"I mean it, you know. How much I love showing Bill the universe doesn't change anything to the fact that I enjoy coming here and have a good moment with you."  
"Is it really how it feels for you ?" she asked bitterly. "Am I just a distraction to you, always available when you have nothing better to do of your evening."  
"It's not what I mean, Missy."  
"But it's what you said. You were far too happy to trick the egg with your piped dices. Don't deny, he told me."  
"Why on Earth did Nardole say that ?" the Doctor muttered.  
"Because he was pissed, and I was the only person he could complain to."  
"That was not a thing to say anyway. I hate it when he's cruel to you."  
Missy talked back before she had realised she was taking defence of the despicable hobgoblin. She guessed it was okay as long as she did it to shame the Doctor even more.  
"He's not the cruel one."  
The Doctor opened his mouth to say he was sorry again, but finally he closed it and smiled a bit too brightly to be true.  
"So, ready to become my piano teacher ?"  
Missy nodded with a faint smile, and they ate in silence before walking to the instrument. The Doctor watched carefully each little gesture she made. He tried to read in her unspoken language, deciphering what was in her head.  
He sat by her sides on a chair and watched her play. It was a nice thing to hear, the sound of the instrument in the large room. He admired the way her hands were running on the keys, impressed by her agility. He couldn't imagine any of her past selves doing it. Maybe a few bearded one, just for the show. But Missy wasn't putting on a show, she was exposing her hearts and it was a first for the Master. He had to fight the urge to touch her, pull her in a hug or stroke her soft wild hair.  
"Your turn" she simply said.  
He smiled and started playing, missing a few keys. Missy rolled her eyes and showed it again. He was half playing dumb to let her lead him, half genuinly confused buy the very unusual pattern of the melody. It didn't sound like anything he had ever heard, and he didn't quite understand. It sounded pretty, though.  
"It's nice, did you compose it ?"  
"I did."  
He kept making mistakes and this time it was genuine. Missy smiled.  
"I know when you lose on purpose, Doctor. Right now you really are confused" she teased with delight.  
"It's true, I'm confused. But to my defence, this piece is very confusing. Does it have a title ?"  
Missy smiled mischievously.  
"Maybe you should give it one."  
"To be fair I'm not sure I understand. Will I one day ?"  
"If you learn it, you will. Actually it's really important to me" she said coyly.  
The Doctor nodded and let her rehearse again.

He was in the office, guitar in hands, trying to play the song over. It still didn,'t make sense to him and it was haunting him. Not in the way a pop song or an ad jingle parasites the mind. More like a puzzle, a riddle his mind tries to process. He was a Time Lord and music was to time what painting was to space. This tune made no sense, it didn't bring any emotion. It was more like abstract art. Some patterns were recurring, it was more a formal grammar than a musical writing. Suddenly an idea struck him. Taking a paper and a pen, he started tracing a diagram. The pattern made sense. After a few trials, he achieved to link notes with Old High Gallifreyan, the chords marking the complex tense system of his native language.  
With an excited smile, he translated the whole thing. It wasn't a long piece in the end. When he was finished, he pinned the first words on the cork board, along with the students Christmas cards and the boring academic stuff. On the white sheet, a bunch of circular circles said :

I love you, Doctor, my biggest hope and only witness.


End file.
